Now more than ever, we need your help as our organization strives to save the last of our wild horses and burros on public lands. They are facing the greatest threat of our lifetime – the extermination and permanent sterilization of these American icons by the very agency mandated by law to protect them, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

I want to be very clear that there is NO OVERPOPULATION of wild horses and burros in our country. We only have half the number we had in 1971 when ISPMB and our first president, Wild Horse Annie, were instrumental in getting federal legislation passed to protect these last living symbols of the American West. At that time, Congress declared that they were “fast disappearing from the American scene.” There is no need to suppress their numbers any further when 70% of the herds have less than viable populations.

Over the past fifteen years, ISPMB has saved four wild horse herds from eradication. Three of those four herds no longer reside on public lands but only exist here at the ISPMB’s ranch where they are free from roundups and living happily in families never to be torn apart again.

During these years, ISPMB’s studies focused on the causative factors that create stable and unstable population growth while committed to understanding the intricate social structures of the family bands.

Our first two herds have given us invaluable data showing that stable family bands, free from disruptions of roundups, produce a very SLOW growth in these herds (8-10% compared to BLM’s 20%).

Our last two herds received the fertility control drug from 2007 until 2011 when we realized that the drug can cause permanent infertility with five years of application, although the literature states seven years.

We are noting a pattern on our one herd that received 4.5 years of the drug and are now foaling again. Out of 36 mares, 7 mares have foaled and 6 foals have died. With this pattern developing, we are very concerned about the cause of death and with good reason. We are sending our foals to a recognized university to their pathology department to determine the cause of death. Our younger mares in this herd that did not receive the drug are foaling and their foals are vibrant and healthy. All conditions remain the same for mares who had the drug and those who did not. These deaths are not normal.

OUR PROJECT GOAL IS TO RAISE $250,000

Your donation will be used for veterinary bills and pathology costs.

Your funding will help us hire a full-time vet to perform autopsies and send samples to the University who is doing our pathology reports.

Your funding will also feed our horses.

With 6 million livestock, 4 million wildlife and only 30,000 wild horses and burros left on public lands, we must STOP BLM’s latest policy of making America’s wild horses and burros infertile and we must STOP the BLM from continually making them scapegoats for long standing misuse and abuse of our public lands from overgrazing by livestock. We must not only save our wild horses and burros but we must demand that the BLM be effective stewards of our public lands.
Thank you for your continued support. The future of all wild horses and burros in our country are depending upon our studies and your generosity.

Together we can succeed.

With much appreciation,

Karen A. Sussman
President, ISPMB

STAND WITH US IN BRINGING THE TRUTH FORWARD

WE MUST STOP THE BLM AT ALL COSTS FROM SUPRESSING WILD HORSE AND BURRO POPULATIONS ANY FURTHER ESPECIALLY THROUGH PERMANENT STERILIZATION.

WILD HORSES AND BURROS ARE NOT THE CAUSE OF HABITAT DEGRADATION OF PUBLIC LANDS.